What are TCP Wrappers? How do they work?

What are TCP Wrappers? How do they work?

What are TCP Wrappers? How do they work?

    Requires Free Membership to View

    Login

    By submitting your registration information to SearchNetworking.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchNetworking.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

Controlling access to network services is one of the most important security tasks, and TCP Wrappers are what work out this access control by restricting services that can be used. TCP Wrapper is a daemon that is run instead of inetd. It intercepts requests and either allows inetd to run and service the request or does not run inetd, thereby denying the request. Using this method makes it possible to provide logging support, return messages to connections, permit a daemon to only accept internal connections, etc. TCP Wrapper can be used in conjunction with a firewall or other security enhancement, and it can serve nicely as an extra layer of protection for the system.

This was first published in August 2007